


everybody talks (too much)

by awfffsome



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2017-12-24 08:56:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/938049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awfffsome/pseuds/awfffsome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Except in the crazy possibility of her stupid best friend deciding to just kiss her in the middle of a corridor full of students, including two of her relatives (seriously, couldn't they finish school already?). In this absurd scenario, Rose would rather that her family did not meddle. (Yeah, right.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. and that was when I kissed her.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know if it'll matter, but just in case: Victoria, Dominique, James and Fred have already finished Hogwarts, and they were all Gryffindors (James and Fred have just finished it); Molly and Louis are Ravenclaws and Roxanne is Gryffindor and they're all on their seventh year; Rose is also Gryffindor and Scorpius and Albus are Slytherins, all sixth year; Lucy is the lovely fifth year Hufflepuff; and Lily and Hugo are both fourth year Gryffindors. Oh, Lorcan and Lysander are fifth year Ravenclaws, and Alice Longbottom is a sixth year Hufflepuff.
> 
> Hope you like it! :D

Rose Weasley couldn't remember one single, teeny-tiny moment of her seventeen years in this world in which her monstrous family hasn't been meddling in her life. Most of the time, she didn't mind. She would roll her eyes to Dominique and Roxanne's boy advices and Lily daydreaming about wedding gowns every time Rose went out with a new guy; and she sure would hex James and Fred arses when they decided to have "the talk" (they actually used quotation marks to say that) with her boyfriends. She probably could do without Molly constantly remembering her that she should follow her mother's study schedule for that year because the NEWTs were the most important exams - scratch that, they were the most important  _thing_  of  _the world,_ and it didn't matter that she was still on her sixth year _._  She wouldn't mind if Hugo stopped bothering her discussing her performance in every single Quidditch game she had played in her life, including those they had at the back of the Burrow when they were children.

So yeah, they were kind of annoying, and she probably would like to have  _some_  time to herself once in awhile, but they were family and really, she wouldn't want it any other way. Except in the crazy possibility of her stupid best friend deciding to just kiss her in the middle of a corridor full of students, including two of her relatives (seriously, couldn't they finish school already?). Louis and Albus gaped at her for a whole five minutes (more like thirty seconds, really) as if Rose was the one who had just gone nuts and kissed Scorpius. But she guessed they  _had_ to gape at her since the person who deserved all the gaping had decide to kiss her, then rub his neck awkwardly  _and walk away_.

In this absurd scenario, Rose would rather that her family did not meddle.

_Yeah, right._

An hour later about every family member she had in Hogwarts had found her to talk about "the incident" - as in Roxanne shouting, down there from the Great Hall's doors, dinner in full motion and basically the whole school watching, "Rose, come here and tell me everything about  _the incident_." Sure, let's be secretive about the thing you just screamed for the entirety of the United Kingdom to hear. Not that it was really some kind of secret anymore, since about twenty people had seen it first hand and Lily had already described the scene to anyone else who wanted to know (nevermind she wasn't even there when it'd happened). She kept bragging that she totally knew it and calling dibs on being maid of honour.

Louis had gone from gaping, to staring wide-eyed and then to smiling apologetically every time he'd run into Rose after the incident. Hugo had gone from saying 'what' repeatedly, to saying 'no way' repeatedly, to stalk her down and laugh at her face while remembering how dad would love to hear about what had happened, also repeatedly. Molly hadn't seemed to really care about it, but she had started to be even more annoying about studying and to say things like "you can't let frivolous things get in the way of your success, Rose, focus!". Lucy had just wished her luck; Hufflepuffs were too nice for their own good.

The non-family that was considered family took some time to react, too. Lorcan was indignant, but Rose was sure that it was only because he had had a crush on Scorpius for like forever; he hadn't said anything though; when he had passed by her in the entrance hall, by the time she had been going to dinner, he had just made a face she knew meant he'd like to know everything about it later. Lysander seemed to be the one and only person of the castle who didn't know anything. He sat with her for dinner (sometimes he just sat in the first table he put his eyes on) and didn't even notice when Roxie did all the shouting. He had actually asked her what all the fuss was about and before she could answer, he said, "You know what? I bet there are some of those Wrackspurt in here and they're messing with people's brain. I should probably owl mum to tell her about it." Alice Longbottom had smiled at her in the one class they shared and then said she was really happy for them, later at dinner. Merlin, those Hufflepuffs!

At the end of the night, even uncle Neville had said, very awkwardly, that Scorpius was a good, nice guy. In fact, the only relative who hadn't talked to her about it was the one she actually wanted to talk to! Albus was the only person who might have an idea about what the hell had happened other than Scorpius himself, but both of them had disappeared the whole afternoon and didn't make it to dinner. So, of course, Rose was going insane, and leave it to Emily Boot to know what to do when she was in that state. Rose didn't want to talk about it in front of other people, so, like the good best friend she was, Emily hadn't said a thing the whole day - which, Rose had to admit, was a great achievement. She knew how much she must have wanted to say at least one teeny-tiny  _I told you so_. Or shout it at the top of the Astronomy Tower, more like it.

But she didn't do anything until it was only the two of them, a bunch of house-elves and a lot of chocolate ice cream. And then she smiled the most pleased smile Rose had ever seen - and she'd grown with  _James_.

The grunt left Rose's throat even before Emily had time to say, in the most annoying, satisfied tone, "Told ya." Good. One more person to laugh at the expense of her misery.

"Oh, come on, Rose! Don't act like you didn't like it!"

Rose's mouth opened, outraged. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Emily rolled her eyes and stared at her with a face that said she wasn't buying it. Okay, so Rose knew what that was supposed to mean. Since they've had a similar conversation about a million times before, it would be hard to believe she didn't have a clue on what Emily was suggesting. But she would evoke her friendship-earned right to respectfully pretend she didn't know something she actually didn't want to discuss. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Em."

Emily threw her hands in the air, scoffing. "So you're going to tell me Scorpius just kissed you, out of nowhere, and you didn't like it not even a bit?"

"Yes."

"And you were just talking, like every common day? Nothing different? Scorpius simply lost his mind and decided to kiss you and then run away?"

"Exactly."

"I don't buy it."

Rose raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing, deciding to shrug and eat a big spoon of ice cream instead. She couldn't really blame Emily for not believing her since she wasn't telling exactly the truth. Sure, Scorpius and her had been heading to lunch like any other day, with Albus and Louis just a few steps behind. And they had been talking about the most common subject ever: Quidditch.

He had said Slytherin would  _so_ smash Gryffindor down in the next game.

She had said they had as much a chance on doing that as Albus had a chance on finding a girlfriend.

Albus had "Oy!"'d them from back there and proceeded on being solemnly ignored.

Scorpius had said that while he agreed with the Albus part of her affirmation ("Shut it, you two!"), she was insane if she thought they had a chance against the current Hogwarts champion team.

Rose had said they had luck, that's all.

Scorpius had rolled his eyes and nudged her lightly in the arm, saying "Shut up, Weasley."

She had grinned at him and said, "Make me, Malfoy." Then he had leaned in and kissed her.

So she may or may not have been flirting a little bit, but Emily and her crazy ideas about Rose fancying Scorpius didn't have to know that; she was annoying enough as it was.

* * *

"What the  _bloody_  hell was that?"

Scorpius groaned loudly and took the pillow he was using as a shield from the world off of his face. He thought he would have at least a bit more than five minutes to suffer alone before Albus could find him. Not that he had made a great job on hiding, since he was on their dormitory - but still.

"Could you not be so loud, or british?" He put the pillow back on his face, the place where it would lie for the rest of Scorpius' time on Earth.

"I  _am_  british. And so are you," Albus snorted.

"Yeah, we had that established the last time you went all Ron Weasley on me."

"Well, talking about uncle Ron..."

He loved Albus, he really, really did - but sometimes Scorpius just wanted to punch him until he wasn't able to talk anymore. Right now he decided to ignore him, though. He was feeling too sorry for himself to act on it.

"Are you going to tell me why did you kiss her or not?"

"Not," he said, rolling on his stomach and away from Albus; even though he couldn't see him, Scorpius knew he was smiling diabolically and starting to think about the most inconvenient way to make him talk.

"Scorpius. Scorpius, why did you kiss her? Scorpius? Scorpius, tell me why. Why did you? Do you like her? Do you _looove_ her? Scorpius, Scorpius, Scorpius, why did-"

"Because I fancy her, genius!"

Oh. Well, he fought bravely for as long he could. Besides, Albus had had a Muggle girlfriend once that used to call him Annoying Orange. His own  _girlfriend_  thought he was unbearable. Scorpius have never understood the orange part (Albus was the only Potter kid who weren't ginger - James says it's because he couldn't pull it off), but the annoying bit? Most accurate.

" _Duh._ " Again, Scorpius couldn't see it, but he knew Albus was rolling his eyes. He was starting to think they should spend some time apart from each other; that was getting creepy. "Everybody knows that. Even uncle Ron knows that. He actually asked me to keep an eye on you last Christmas after you spent about half an hour at the Burrow and couldn't stop staring at Rose, smiling like an idiot."

Scorpius turned around and raised an stunned eyebrow to that. Albus' mum had always talked about how her brother was the most oblivious person in the world and laughed about how much time he'd taken to realise he was in love with Rose's mother. "You're lying."

"Am not. James has a bet going on for like two years now. Everybody bet on when one of you would do something about it, who would do it first, where would you do it..."

"Okay, I get it."

"You actually lost me five galleons by not kissing her last summer when we went to that beach."

"Albus, I'm totally obvious, I get it." Even while he was saying it, Scorpius knew that it was useless to try to interrupt Albus when he turned his monologue mode on.

"But I guess it was my fault, really, I should've gone with the Gryffindor, after all, not the Slytherin chicken."

"Hey, I  _did_  kiss her!"

But that was when the Knut dropped and Scorpius realised Albus wasn't talking exclusively about him. The bet was about him  _and Rose_. 'Who would do something first' implied that two would have to want to do something.

Now, even though that was Rose's favorite pet name for him, Scorpius wasn't stupid. The moment he'd realised he fancied her, he'd started to ask himself if she could fancy him back. And suddenly all their relationship and dynamics were analyzed and overanalyzed and there was a bit of obsession there, and sometimes he thought she might like him too (a lot of times, to be honest - he had the Malfoy arrogance, after all). But it was one thing to think by yourself that maybe you have a shot with the girl you fancy, and another entirely to know her own family seems to think that too. If it was just Albus he would be suspicious about it, but the whole Weasley-Potter clan? There were some bright minds there!

Albus was still on full mode, talking about chances and love and war and some bloke named Shakespeare (whatever he meant with all that), when Scorpius, smiling like an idiot (Albus had described that quite right), finally managed to interrupt him. "So you reckon she likes me?"

"And they say you're the smart one. Keep up, mate: everybody knows she likes you and you like her, so go do something about it because we're getting tired of waiting to see uncle Ron and your father's reaction to that. Oh, that will be good."

Scorpius chuckled, but threw a pillow at Albus just for good measure.

* * *

He had spent the rest of the day yesterday coming up with a plan of action. Scorpius knew Rose all too well to know she was freaking out about the kiss. She would freak out if he said he fancied her and she would freak out if he said it was all a huge mistake. Basically, she would freak out at everything he could possibly say or do right now, so Scorpius had decided to do nothing at all. He would walk into the Great Hall, sit beside Albus and eat his breakfast like every other morning. Like nothing had happened. And Rose could do whatever she liked about it.

As Albus had put it, to Scorpius distaste, it was the Chicken Plan. But well, she  _was_  the Gryffindor - she may as well play her role.

(It happened like that:

"Maybe nobody will even know about it," Scorpius said, pacing around the room.

Albus laughed, spread on his own bed. "Sure, mate. Because Hogwarts is known for its ability to maintain a secret, yeah?"

Scorpius sighed, then threw himself onto his bed, then groaned. Of course he knew it was a very bad idea; he just didn't know what to do anymore. They were locked inside the dorm for about three hours and the best thing he had came up with involved a getaway to Spain.

"I don't know what to do. Merlin, this is the most humiliating moment of my life!"

The snort that came out of Albus' throat wasn't human. "Dude, that wasn't even your most humiliating moment  _of the month!_ " Then, laughing, he added, "The prank Roxanne pulled on you last week was certainly worse."

Scorpius wasn't ready to talk about it. He dismissed the topic with another groan.

"So, genius, why don't you tell me what I should do? Pretend nothing happened?"

Albus shrugged and said, "I don't know, it's at least better than running off to Spain. Do you even know how to speak Spanish? And no, knowing how to order drinks doesn't count." But Scorpius wasn't listening anymore. He was too busy contemplating his realization.

"I should pretend that nothing happened!"

Albus stopped the list of Spanish words he knew ( _el snitch de oro, cazadora, su madre es muy caliente_  - it turned out Ginny Potter had had a lot of Spanish fans when she had played for the Harpies) and stared at Scorpius for a minute before rolling his eyes.

"You have  _got_ to be kidding me."

"It's brilliant!"

"It's  _Rose._ "

"If I act like there's nothing going on,  _she_ will have to do something about it!"

"Yeah, like rip your head out."

"The next move is hers."

"She will freak out!"

"She will freak out anyway!"

"You're such a chicken, Malfoy."

Tell him something he doesn't know.)

Easier said than done, though, he found out. He was standing just outside the Great Hall for about ten minutes, thinking and rethinking about everything and channeling his best nonchalant air. But that was hard, what with all the talking going on. On the rather small trip from the dungeons to there, none less than thirteen students had commented on last afternoon events. Most of them had only smirked knowingly or nodded approvingly, but one guy had gone as far as to actually ask him if they were dating and if that meant Rose was off of the market. Scorpius had been so taken aback at that (he didn't even know that person!), he had only stared and blinked until the bloke went away. Then he had considered going after the git and hex him a little bit later.

He was starting to think that it was all a terrible idea and maybe he should just go back to his dorm and simply never leave again. That could work, right? Albus could bring him food and notes from all the classes, and it was a nice room, all green and silver - he could make a home out of it!

It was then, in the middle of all his mental ramblings, that Scorpius saw her red hair turning around the other corner. He knew it was  _her_  red hair because it was just so Rose. It wasn't as plain or bright as Lily's, or as curly and dark as Roxie's, but it wasn't that. Even if the whole school had the same hair type as her, he would have recognized that messy bun anywhere. Scorpius knew it never started the day like this; she usually came to breakfast with her hair down, but at some point it would annoy her too much - because her long fringe was always on her eyes, or her purse strap kept pulling on it, or  _Scorpius_ kept pulling on it, or it was too distracting tickling on her arms while she tried to study. And then she would just fasten it with the first thing she put her hands on. It could be her wand, or somebody else's wand, and once she even used a branch that was lying around in the courtyard. Scorpius was always teasing her for not conjuring something appropriate to do it, but she would just glare at him and tell him to shut up.

The fact that she was wearing a bun at that time in the morning, though, could only mean she was grumpy, and Scorpius, who was cowering even before noticing that, sure couldn't face a moody Rose Weasley. And right then and there he decided to go along with his plan and slipped inside the Great Hall before Rose could spot him, hurrying to reach the Slytherin table. When he sat down, with a relieved sigh, Albus just rolled his eyes at him and said, for the thousandth time, that his plan was bollocks.

Again: tell him something he doesn't know.


	2. all you're giving me is fiction.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose couldn't decide yet if it was a good or a bad thing that she didn't share any classes with Slytherin today. On one hand, she wouldn't have much of a chance to talk to him; on the other, it was probably a good thing to avoid the detention she certainly would get for hexing his balls off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not even going to try to apologize for taking so long with this, I don't deserve to be forgiven. I promise I'm gonna try to be faster with the next one though, especially since this chapter is too short for my liking.

Rose Weasley was a nice, decent person. She was friendly with everyone (most of the time anyway, but you can't expect a girl to be polite while yelling about how much the other Quidditch team sucks), always helped anyone in need, was loyal to her friends and tried to never say bad things about other people. Maybe she wasn't the epitome of a good kid, what with all the night tours around the castle and little lies about how exactly she got into that detention, but Rose was all right. The one thing she always lacked, however, was patience. Aunt Ginny used to say it comes with the Weasley gene, along with the red hair and the cuteness. So yeah, sometimes she would flip out at those annoying, giggling girls who wouldn't shut up in the library, or hex some lad who couldn't take a hint and understand she _wasn't_ "playing hard to get" - and she definitely, _definitely_ would be tearing-her-hair-out, snapping-at-everybody, at-the-edge-of-cursing-someone _freaking out_ at her best _stupid_ mate who decided to pretend he hadn't just _kissed her_ yesterday!

Oh, she was mad, all right - but mad didn't even _begin_ to explain it. She was frustrated and lost and if she was being really honest (which she wasn't), a bit hurt. There used to be this little, almost pleasant ball of expectation living at the pit of her stomach since the incident, and she could deny it all she wanted, but that felt good. Not now, though. Not after Scorpius had blatantly ignored her all through breakfast. Now that thing in her belly felt like nausea.

Rose couldn't decide yet if it was a good or a bad thing that she didn't share any classes with Slytherin today. On one hand, she wouldn't have much of a chance to talk to him; on the other, it was probably a good thing to avoid the detention she certainly would get for hexing his balls off. But then again, that also meant no Albus, and while she was kind of directing some of her rage toward him for disappearing all day yesterday, the need to talk to him was bigger than her indignation.

So it let her stuck with Emily. It usually wasn't a bad thing - she was her best friend for some reason, after all. But today it meant a lot of annoying, little analysis. Like why Scorpius did it. Why he was ignoring her. Why he acted the way he did - "because, you know, it mustn't've being easy growing up as a Malfoy, that must be why he's so keen on hiding his true feelings for you, or actually for anyone else, as a matter-of-fact." Rose had a little headache from all the eye rolling and it was only lunchtime. She knew Scorpius well enough to know most of the things she said were pure and completely bullshit. Yeah, it had been a pain in the arse to grow up as a Malfoy, she had heard all the little details in a drunk night last year, and you don't need to be Freud to psychoanalyse a guy like Scorpius, anyhow. But concerning the problem in hand, the truth was one and only: Malfoy was a bloody coward. It wasn't any news, of course - being his best mate for almost five years now, Rose was more than aware of that fact. And while it didn't bother her at all when he was avoiding other matters, when it came to her, he should man-up and stop acting like a child.

She said so to Em over lunch, when, once again, Scorpius was hiding out at the Slytherin table.

"So he fancies you and won't say it. Say something yourself, then," she put simply. As if there was any simple thing about this whole mess.

"If he fancies me - and that's a big if," she ignored Emily rolling her eyes, " _he_ should say something! Grow some balls and stop being a bloody wimp!"

"Especially because he wouldn't be of much use with no balls, yeah?"

Rose had to mask her smirk with a scowl. "Shut up", she said hastily. "And that's not even the point. I never said he wants me, or that I want him!"

"Funny thing you turned fancying into wanting."

" _The point_ ", she went on, ignoring the other girl, "is that he should be more considering of me! I'm his best mate!"

"Oh, I bet he wants to mate with you, all right."

And that's pretty much why today wasn't a good day to get stuck with Emily.

Watching the look on Rose's face, Emily started to laugh, tossing her long, brown hair over her shoulder. "I'm only messing with you, Rose." Then, after a while, "Well, not _really_ , but that doesn't matter now, because the two of you are idiots and none of you'll be smart enough to just go and talk with each other so we can go on to the part where you have cute, strawberry-blonde haired babies."

Rose rolled her eyes, starting to get up and gather her things. "I'm going to the library to finish my potions essay where nobody is talking nonsense about sticky, imaginary little chits."

She was two seats away when Emily called in a not so subtle way, "I don't care how much Lily protests, I want to be the godmother!"

Oh God, the whole school would be thinking she's pregnant by the end of the day, wouldn't they? Rose pressed her eyes shut and groaned while Lily shouted back from the other side of the Gryffindor table, saying she had dibs on Rose's future kids _years_ ago. Yep, everybody would be talking about that by the next few hours. Her life was just _great_.

* * *

In the one and a half hour that Rose spent at the library _not_ finishing her potions essay, she came to three conclusions: chocolate is a girl's best friend, Emily Boot is not, and if Scorpius wanted to pretend nothing happened, well, then two can play that game, mate. It was annoying and frustrating not knowing why the hell he had done it, and being his best friend and all she expected at least a conversation, but let's face it – pretending nothing happened was as good as an answer itself. While she was still in the dark about why he kissed her, the after part was pretty clear: he regretted it and was letting it rest by not talking about it.

That _was_ a Scorpius classic, after all. Watching him around the Potter-Weasley clan might give you the wrong impression (ironically), but the guy used to be the dictionary definition of quiet and shy. Before he befriended Albus around the middle of the first year, the only person he talked to was his cousin, who was a fourth year at the time, so she didn't used to give him that much of attention. And even after that, he walked beside Al like a lost puppy and didn't talk to others unless extremely necessary. Little second-year Rose noticed this and thought it was cute and kind of weird at the same time, and she told him so, once. He seemed offended at first – actually he was clearly offended, Rose was just too stubborn to recognize – but after two weeks of Rose tagging along with him and Al, Scorpius had to get used to her presence. Eventually - after too many pranks from James and Roxanne, when he finally caught up that one must retort and retaliate to survive their family - he loosened up.

He still wasn't that good with the rest of the world, though. Merlin forbid Scorpius to actually share his feelings, so no, he'd never talked to her about that – but Rose was sure it had something to do with the whole Malfoy ordeal. People still looked down at him sometimes, and she thought that maybe he was always so afraid of being called on what his dad and grandfather have done that he never risked upsetting someone else. So he usually just answered when talked to, except for the few people he felt comfortable around.

All in all, it wasn't the first time he tried to make something disappear by ignoring it. The one time he and Rose had a fight, back in third year, he had hid in his room for the rest of the day and asked Al to say to her he was sorry – and truth be told, he wasn't even the one to blame for (which he reminded her later, when they were back on speaking terms).

Not this time, though. Rose was determined to make him work for it for once. If Scorpius was sorry for kissing her, well, then he'd have to say that to her face. Her resolution didn't fade all through her afternoon classes. It didn't shake her determination when Emily chuckled and rolled her eyes, saying she was the most stubborn person she'd ever met. Rose was absolutely sure of her plan until the time she stepped onto one passageway in the second floor on her way to dinner, only to find a lonesome Scorpius Malfoy at the other end. At that moment, she regretted telling Em to meet her at the Great Hall because she needed to drop her books at Gryffindor Tower first. Because right now, she realised, she wasn't _ready_ for her own plan.

It was all good fun making Scorpius squirm and deal with his actions; she had forgot, though, that it also meant to make him say to her face that kissing her was a mistake and he regretted it. And when she saw him there, just crossing the tapestry hiding the secret passage, the bitter taste of rejection filled her mouth and suddenly Rose wasn't sure she really wanted to do it.

Then Scorpius raised his gaze and spotted her standing there. He froze and his eyes widened so much she could distinguish the bluegreen color of his iris even from that distance and in the darkness. And then he gulped, hard _. Subtle._ Knowing him, he was probably thinking something in the lines of: _shit, shit, shit, did she see me? Maybe she hasn't seen me yet, I could still try a run for it. Yep, Spain it is._ Rose was still trying to figure it out what was this obsession of his with the country, but whenever he planned an escapade (and now that she thought about it, it was also weird how many times Scorpius had planned to flee), Spain ended up being his destination.

And that was when she decided that Scorpius would have to really do something about it, about them; he owned Rose that much. So she took a deep breath, put on her best _I'm Hermione Granger's daughter_ face and continued to cross the passageway, determined to pretend he wasn't even there.

If he started it, then he should finish it. _Your move, Scorp._


End file.
